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“Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”

— Warren Buffett

Investors can learn a lot from Warren Buffett, whose above quote teaches the importance of thinking about investment time horizon, and asking ourselves before buying any given stock: can we envision holding onto it for years — even a decade-long holding period possibly?

Suppose a “buy-and-hold” investor was considering an investment into Autodesk Inc (NASD: ADSK) back in 2014: back then, such an investor may have been pondering this very same question. Had they answered “yes” to a full decade-long investment time horizon and then actually held for these past 10 years, here’s how that investment would have turned out.

Start date: 01/06/2014
$10,000

01/06/2014
  $47,131

01/04/2024
End date: 01/04/2024
Start price/share: $48.55
End price/share: $228.92
Starting shares: 205.97
Ending shares: 205.97
Dividends reinvested/share: $0.00
Total return: 371.51%
Average annual return: 16.77%
Starting investment: $10,000.00
Ending investment: $47,131.67

As shown above, the decade-long investment result worked out exceptionally well, with an annualized rate of return of 16.77%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 10 years ago into $47,131.67 today (as of 01/04/2024). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 371.51% (something to think about: how might ADSK shares perform over the next 10 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]

More investment wisdom to ponder:
“In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” — Robert Arnott